Friday, 1 April 2016

MY SKY AT NIGHT

As I've had a few rare clear nights over here at Glenn Field,
I like to grab the opportunity to stargaze and take a few photos, which I'd like to share with you.

I never tire of taking snaps of the Moon, and I took this
photo a few nights ago showing it in it's first quarter.

Last night it was cold but clear and I took this picture of the
constellation of Orion just above the trees in my back garden. You can see the
red supergiant, Betelgeuse, the second brightest star in Orion. Just above to the right is Meissa, actually a
double star. Further right is the third brightest star in Orion, Bellatrix.

As the spring buds are just appearing on the trees I managed
to get a view of Orion’s Belt through the branches. The belt consists of Alntak, a triple star
system, Alnilam, a blue super giant, and Mintaka, another double star. The bright star seen through the trees in the lower left hand corner is Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, although it's actually a binary star system.

If you take a horizontal line to right of Betelgeuse to
another red giant, the bright star Aldebaran, which is the brightest star in
the Taurus constellation. Taurus also
contains the Crab Nebula, a super nova remnant.

Taurus is also host to another group of stars, The Pleiades
also known as The Seven Sisters, an open star cluster, always worth a look and
easily visible with the naked eye.

The planet Jupiter was quite prominent too, and although the
lens in my camera isn't powerful enough to get even the merest hint of the surface
detail of the gas giant, it did appear to show up three of Jupiter’s larger moons in a
line.

This final picture shows what happens when the camera’s on a
slower shutter speed. Those three wavy
lines are a passing aircraft’s navigation lights.

That's a shame Ed, you and Bettina used to take some really good Moon shot photos. Bridge cameras seem to popular though these days, I have a bird watcher friend who uses his bridge camera all the time (he's currently on a birding holiday in Panama at the moment would you believe.)

Thanx Guyz! Life is a roller coaster ride with its ups and downs and twists and turns. This past year has been loaded with those steep, fast downward slides and frustrating twists and turns. That being said, I've managed to get through each downward slide without losing my cookies and there have been a good share of positives. So for now I'm just ridin' the roller coaster and see where I get let off!